Skills Wanted

I have one skill. That's it. I know how to make TV. As long as I want to work in TV, or more likely, TV wants to work with me, I am golden. Outside of that I am screwed.

And I don't mean "skill" in the Napolean Dynamite sense of the word like, "Ninja skills," "Bow skills" etc. Gone are the days of learning a trade. More importantly, gone are the days of taking pride in learning a trade. So much has been made of higher education and each generation being smarter and more accomplished than the next, I think we have lost sight of something vital. The ability to DO something - anything.

Our entire generation has become upper management.

Sure, I made fun of the kids in metal shop and auto repair class while I was in Advanced Sculpture making some horrendous HR Geiger rip off that I thought was deep. And where are we both today? I can make a fucking snake out of play dough and those kids can fix a Buick. They can weld...something. Ok, I don't have anything I need welded, but if I did I couldn't fucking do it. I snored my way through typing class. You know where those other kids are today? Exactly right - somewhere fucking typing their asses off.

Man started out needing skills to survive. He needed to hunt, to make fire, to provide shelter...to know when to let his she-mate have a girls night out so she doesn't stand over his sleeping body with a club whispering, "I am my own person."

For some reason man has taken great pride in no longer knowing how to do any of those things. Like it is a sign of status that you CAN'T do those things. It's not that you "can't" change your oil, it's that you have "someone" to do that. You don't have to hunt for food, "someone does that for you." Ironically, each generation removed from Org the Caveman has evolved and evolved and evolved to the point where we need fucking lasagna noodles that don't need to be boiled in water first. We need voice activated dialing because punching seven digits into our digital cell phone is too fucking demanding.

Well, if the shit ever hits the fan and we have to fend for ourselves you are going to have an entire generation freezing their asses off in a nuclear wasteland all trying to order take-out at the same time. We're fucked. Like that Chinese place is going to have enough spring rolls for ALL of us? Not gonna happen.

I think everyone needs to know one skill. Whether it be phsycial like carpentry, masonry, plumbing or more mental such as accounting or engineering. That way when we all get blasted back to the stone age we each have something to offer the collective. "I can track game and kill it for food. And what can you do? Recognize trends in an ever fluctuating economic system? Fuck you. I'll go with the guy next to you. He knows how to build a stone wall to keep out the hords of invaders from carrying off our women."

Take a couple of seconds to chew on that and then lets get off our asses and learn to do something.